By Emily O'Connor, For The Miami Student
Miami University began the preparation for a renovation project on the North Quad on March 16. Brandon, Flower, Hahne and Hepburn were the residence halls chosen for renovation, along with Martin dining hall.
The project will be similar to the East Quad renovation project currently underway.
"The new buildings will be getting HVAC so there will be a lot better temperature control inside the residence hall spaces," Associate VP of Facility Planning and Operation Cody Powell said.
Powell is responsible for the oversight of construction on campus.
"It is a complete interior renovation," Powell said. "Better temperature control, better finishes and the restrooms are being completely redone. The renovations are in alignment with what we have seen in Anderson and McFarland."
Miami has chosen to do a cluster of buildings at a time so utility improvements can be made. According to Powell, achieving the campus-wide sustainability goals, like utility improvements, is hard to do on a building-by-building basis. Renovating a group of buildings at a time allows for a more energy efficient method of heating and cooling.
"Age is a factor as to why the North Quad is being addressed. Also, we were trying to find the larger cluster of buildings where we could accomplish this in the most efficient and least disruptive way for the campus," Miami's VP of Finance and Business David Creamer said.
Along with renovations to the residence halls, Miami is doing a Tree Inventory in North Quad to help ensure the life of the newly renovated residence halls.
"We've learned that as we go into these renovation projects we do an assessment," said Powell. "We have to understand the impact before we begin the design process."
According to Powell, the Tree Inventory categorizes each individual tree into 4 categories: Specimen tree, Contributing tree, Declining tree, and Dead tree.
"We have to protect the specimen tree and contributing tree as much as possible and work the plan around the declining and dead trees," Powell said.
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The trees in the project area are not going to be relocated.
"Because we have to waterproof the exterior basement walls of the buildings, the perimeter of the building must be excavated, and that means those trees must be removed," project architect and manager Ted Christian said. "The cost to relocate a specimen or contributing tree can be as high as $400,000, which does not fit within the financial model of the project."
The project to renovate the North Quad was funded using tax-exempt bonds that the university issued last year, according to Creamer. The project is expected to cost 98.3 million.
According to Christian, the Tree Inventory was completed in the fall of 2014 so it could be used as a tool to guide the design process.
Miami students can expect to live in the newly renovated dorms by August of 2016.
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